Year C Lent 2 2022 Choosing Faith

 Year C Lent 2, 13 March 2022

St. James the Less Epsiscopal, Ashland, VA

“Choosing Faith”

Collect: O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18

The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Luke 13:31-35

Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Good morning, I hope everyone fared well in the crazy weather yesterday. Becky+ was lined up to preach today, and she has a great sermon. But flights were delayed and then canceled, and Becky+ is still in Florida. Pray she gets home soon. In Tuesday’s link, there will be her sermon. She sent the text to me, but it is so authentically her voice I did not feel I could do it justice.

We see Jesus working miracles and healing. His usual sparring partners, the Pharisees, actually come to him with a warning. “Get away from here, Herod wants to kill you!” Maybe they cared. Maybe they were delivering a political message. Jesus does throw down the gauntlet in his response. He is going to keep doing what he is doing for at least two more days (three total), and Herod, “that fox,” can know it. He says that the confrontation will happen, but it will be in Jerusalem where prophets are killed.

Ponder this passage when people tell you that Jesus was not political. I cannot fathom it when I hear that.

Jesus goes on to give a prediction, a prophecy if you will, in that he will face the showdown when people call out “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Words we say in our liturgy. Words cried out on Palm Sunday with loud hosannas.

But tucked into this wrangling, prophesying, and political maneuvering is a statement that is so endearing and loving. It shows the nature of Jesus, his ministry, and his mission on this planet. Speaking to Jerusalem the killer of prophets and stoner of those trying to help: “O Jerusalem, how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” 

Jesus portrays himself a mother hen, gathering her chicks. I urge you to listen to Becky+’s sermon on Tuesday. She delves into this so much better than I can this morning. But that heart, that heart that breaks because it loves so much, that heart that breaks because of the beloved’s poor choices, that heart is the heart of Jesus. That heart is the heart of the God who sent him.

St. Paul’s warnings to fellow believers today speaks on making good choices, imitating proper examples and shunning the bad, he reminds them (and us): “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory…”

When we get into contentious issues, we need to remember where our first priorities are. When Herod telegraphed his intentions so that the Pharisees came to Jesus in warning, Jesus continued on doing the Lord’s work. That was his first and highest priority. When the church in Philippi needed a reminder, St. Paul says that his citizenship, where he owes his first allegiance, was to his heavenly citizenship.

It is so easy to get distracted by this world. It is what our senses perceive first. We had to cancel our early service in safety because of the bitter temperatures last night and the earlier sunrise to all of us. We just could not respond in time. We do not ignore the world, but we do remind ourselves where our allegiances lie.

When we “hear of wars, and rumors of war,” as Jesus put it, we see it. Acknowledge it. Do what we can. Yes. But we must put first things first.

Herod and other despots, I am sure you can think of a few, do things in such a way to draw attention to themselves. They make their actions big and horrifying to drive you to fear. Fear makes you shrink, feel powerless, and flee or cower. There was someone who recently needed to do something that was emotionally very hard, it would be hard for anyone. But listening to them, the fear of the thing was much worse than the thing. The fear of the thing made it into a monster of overwhelming proportions. They were giving the thing much more weight and power than it had in and of itself.

Friends, our monsters are big enough. We do not need to give them our power by swallowing the fear they are dishing out. I am afraid for the people of Ukraine and the world by the actions that are being taken. But I also know history. We do ourselves a disservice in making a despot a monster. Herod was Herod. Herod had power and would have his day. Jesus says as much. But Jesus also knew he had a lot more to accomplish before that showdown which was to come. Love your enemies, Jesus preaches. Pray for them, even. But do not empower them and kowtow to their whims. 

When we face our monsters, emotional, political, or spiritual, we need to remember who we are and whose we are. With God at our back, we are bigger than any situation, and any of our monsters. And monsters always lose. Always. It might not be today or tomorrow, but as we sing at Christmas, “the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, Goodwill to men.”

This last week we started our Lenten series looking at the Covenants of God, the promises God makes to us. Join us on Tuesday nights at 7. We do it on Tuesdays because the clinic is open Wednesdays and the choirs practice Thursdays. In Tuesday’s email there will be a link to the first class on YouTube in case you wanted to see it. This week we look at the very passage we read today from Genesis. This amazing ceremony where a covenant is established between Abram soon to be Abraham (father of multitudes) and God.

Abram’s concern was one that was cultural and biological. He did not have an heir. He so desperately wanted a male child to receive his inheritance, to carry on his name and lineage. Looking at his own geriatric body and his well-past-her-prime (biologically speaking) wife, he had no hope. But God knew this monster that Abram was facing. God had a plan. The world would be a much better place if Abram had not tried to take matters into his own hands after saying he believed God, but what is, is.

But just as Jesus desired to gather wayward Jerusalem under his loving wings, we see God stepping into history to promise a childless father that his offspring would number more than the visible stars in the sky. And I remind you, this was a desert sky at night with no light pollution to sully the view. Millions upon millions blazing in every direction!

And a spiritual weight filled the place, driving Abram to the brink of sleep, like the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration we talked about a few weeks ago. But in that stillness, with the holiness palpable, we see something beyond comprehension. God commands:

“Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” [Abram] brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

These sacrifices were the covenant incorporated, literally, in the flesh. Picture it. The animals cut down the center, stem to stern, nose to tail. And a half is placed on either side. The small birds necks are wrung, and placed on either side as well. The stench was so great, the vultures circled and wanted to partake of the offal, but Abram chased them off.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

We reach a holy lull, a biding time, waiting for the darkness to surround them. So often it seems that when we are surrounded in darkness and we are chasing off the birds of prey it is then that we are finally attuned to the Almighty. Our distractions are so great that it is under our duress that we finally can focus on what matters most. Continuing…

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.

We see this smoking pot wafting its fragrance heavenward and a flaming torch shining its light moving through the carcasses with unseen hands.

What a spectacle! What a contract! I wish we talked about this passage more. It is so dense with meaning. God is making a covenant, a promissory contract bound in blood, with Abram. And notice that the contract is God with Abram. It is unilateral. God promises to Abram that this promised heir will appear, and may what happened to these carcasses happen to Godself if the promise is not kept. This is a blood oath that our modern understanding must work to put our head around.

God commits to being bigger than Abram’s monster. Jesus commits to loving Jerusalem, that city that will eventually crucify him. Paul commits to being a heavenly citizen first before the Empire, before anything or anyone else. And how do we get in on this understanding? How do we slay our monsters? How do we align ourselves with God before anything else in this distracted world?

Faith. Faith is the key, sisters/brothers/siblings in Christ. Before the covenantal ceremony we get this line in Genesis.

And [Abram] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

God calls us to many things, but the key to unlock all the others is Faith. Faith is, was, and always will be the key. It is the only thing we bring to the table. Free Will means that God cannot force our hand. God cannot make us love God or anyone else, nor make us believe in God or anything else. Faith is what makes us “okay with God,” a much easier understanding than the holy jargon “righteousness.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” And Bob Proctor reminds us, “Faith and Fear both demand that you believe in something you cannot see. You choose!” Hmm. Choose you this day what you will see. That, my friends, is Faith in a nutshell. 

As we all face our monsters, surprise diagnoses, emotional terrors, threats both foreign and domestic, financial, political, or unknown, faith is key to our way through. Note I did not say our way out. We do not escape the living of these lives, these hands we have been dealt to play. But God gets us through our monsters, even David had to face down his Goliath knowing that God was with him. 

We all have our fears. That is what we learn as children so that we can avoid pain and survive. But will we have faith? That is what growing up really is. Letting go of those childhood traumas and reaching our full maturity in God. As I John 4:18 reminds us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”

God is not out to squash us like bugs. God loves us and wants the best for us. God has our backs as we face our monsters. God is with us through the valleys of fear and doubt and death itself. And we find that God is also on the other side, ready to welcome us home. What have we to fear? What will Faith open up for us that Fear keeps from us? Ponder that as we continue in this holy Lent. Amen.